thoughtful mind, that you may catch the tokens of his presence, and the intimations of his will? Thrice happy and auspicious, then, is to you the arrival of this hallowed morning. I hear the voice of God graciously proclaiming-“From this day I will bless you." But, should you persevere in the same course of indolence and folly,-then better had it been for you that it had never dawned, or had shed its rays only on your darkened chamber, or the couch of your last repose. What do you by your present appearance at his footstool, but lift up your hand afresh unto the Lord, that you will diligently hearken to his voice, to fear him, and to keep his commandments alway? And, as if all your former impieties were not enough, will you treasure also this bitter memorial for the day of the coming judgment? Here shall be awfully set before you "life and death, blessing and cursing;"-are you resolved to die? Have Have you "made a covenant. with death, and with hell are you at agreement?" Will you perish at the gate of heaven?-perish where others shall be saved?-and go down into destruction by the same way which others shall have found the portal of salvation, and the path to glory?

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But I turn from this melancholy subject. I have done. Brethren, we meet now only at the footstool of our Father. We shall hereafter behold him on his throne. We are travelling onward to the mountain of his habitation, and shall, ere long, reach the height of his eternal sanctuary. Here, we behold him remotely; there, at his very seat.

We see him

here, “as in a glass darkly;" there, we shall "see him as he is."

Receive my warmest congratulations, united with those of the many brethren here assembled,-on the accomplishment of that sacred purpose which is at length fulfilled. May every hope you have cherished, in this work of piety, be far more than realized! May your honoured pastor be spared for many years, to "labour amongst you, and to admonish you in the Lord," "building you up on your most holy faith," being "comforted together with you," and beholding continually your zeal, and charity, and obedience to the will of God in all things! May the Lord your God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundred fold!" May he "increase you with men as a flock; even as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts!" And may you leave your name hereafter for an inheritance unto his chosen! Thus may the blessing of the Holy One be evermore upon you! Let them who go by the way say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the name of the Lord." For ourselves, we will rejoice in your salvation, and account your prosperity to be our own. And, though now we sow not together, but haply with weeping, and in a different heritage; yet in the day of the final ingathering, may it be ours to bind our sheaves at your side, and fill our bosom from the same field of plenty; when we "joy among you with the joy of harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil!"

II.

DISCOURSE

DELIVERED AT

THE OPENING OF EVERTON CRESCENT CHAPEL,

(REV. JOHN KELLY'S),

LIVERPOOL,

NOVEMBER 23d, 1837.

DISCOURSE IV.

1 COR. I. 23, 24.

"We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

AN air of singular antithesis will be observed to pervade this passage, and the verses with which it is connected. Several important subjects are thus brought forward in the most forcible manner; and, their respective features being thus rendered more striking by reciprocal opposition, the result is an energy of statement perhaps never surpassed. The wisdom of the world is contrasted with the inscrutable wisdom of God; and its vaunted science with its own palpable folly, as evinced in an unnatural but universal ignorance of God. The things which it accounts to be foolishness, are placed in honourable competition with those which it falsely reverences as wise; the things which it contemns for their weakness, with those which it honours as mighty; and